Drug dealer arrested in Wooster

A Summit County drug dealer was arrested Thursday at a local gas station with two small children in the vehicle with him.

Tyler Stephens, 25, was arrested, according to the Medway Drug Enforcement Agency, on a warrant from Summit County.

He was picked up by Summit County on Friday morning.

Medway Senior Agent Jason Waddell said the agency was aware Stephens, nicknamed “Tennessee,” had reportedly been selling meth in Wayne County for some time now.

On Thursday, law enforcement observed Stephens driving in the south end of Wooster and followed him to a gas station on Dover Road. He left the vehicle to enter the gas station, and law enforcement officers from Wooster, Orrville and Wayne County Sheriff’s Office assisted in the surveillance and subsequent arrest.

Waddell said Stephens was taken into custody without incident.

Additionally, he was allegedly found with more than three grams of suspected crystal meth (packaged for sale), cocaine, syringes and a digital scale on his person. He also had a pocket knife on him. An emergency removal of two of Stephens’ biological children also took place, as the two children were in the vehicle with him at the time. The two children — ages 3 and 2 — were taken into custody by Wayne County Children Services.

Waddell said Stephens originally is from Bristol, Tenn., but his last known address was in Marshallville and Barberton. His warrant was on a parole violation from a Summit County case when he allegedly walked away from a halfway house, Waddell noted.

The suspected drugs were sent to BCI for lab testing. Waddell said possible trafficking charges would most likely be filed once those lab results are returned to Medway.

“He’s low on the scale of importance,” Waddell said of Stephens in the Wayne County drug scene. “But nonetheless he is dealing drugs in the county and with children around.”

Between that and the fact intelligence on Stephens notes he typically carries a firearm, Waddell noted that “elevated him.”